Bigger stock grants put women general counsel 16% ahead of men at the largest US companies

Base salaries barely differ. Women's median of $672,000 is $15,000, or about 2.3%, above men's ^[17]. The women's median stock grant of roughly $2.3 million is $400,000, or about 21%, above the men's $1.9 million ^[18]. Component medians do not add up to a median total, but of the $415,000 by which the two lines differ, about 96% is stock ^[19].

Stock is also the part of general counsel pay that has grown fastest. By Equilar's count, the role's median pay across the Equilar 500 went from $2.8 million in 2020 to $3.4 million in 2024, up 20.5%, and Equilar ties the rise to the job carrying more legal, regulatory and strategic responsibility ^[13]. Stock awards are up 30.9% since 2021, more than any other component ^[14]. Gilmore said companies now expect their top lawyers to weigh in on AI governance, cybersecurity and geopolitical risk ^[15].

Equity can also swing quickly. In Equilar's previous report, men led women on stock awards even as women came out ahead on total pay ^[5]. "The magnitude of the difference is notable, particularly because female general counsel out-earned male general counsel across every major compensation component in 2025," John Gilmore, cofounder and managing partner of BarkerGilmore, said in a Q&A published with the report ^[6].

The figures support more than one explanation, and Gilmore offered two himself. One is composition. He said general counsel pay reflects company size, industry, experience and incentive-plan design, and cautioned against reading the data as evidence that gender drives pay ^[7]. If the women in the chair sit at larger companies or in sectors with richer equity plans, the premium is a mix effect. The other is price: he cited stiff competition among companies for proven female legal executives, along with more highly accomplished women reaching the job ^[8]. A third possibility is noise in a small sample. Women held 33.5% of Equilar 500 general counsel roles in 2024, roughly 168 people if every company has one ^[22]. The pay figures come from named-executive-officer disclosures, typically the CEO, the CFO and the three next-highest-paid executives, so a general counsel outside her company's top five would usually not be counted ^[3].

I think the price explanation fits the cash best. The premium sits in the discretionary component while base pay is nearly level, and the pool is shrinking: women's share of the role fell 1.4 percentage points between 2020 and 2024 and, Gilmore said, dipped slightly again in 2025 ^[9][20]. The case against me is Gilmore's own caution ^[7]. The figures as published are not adjusted for company size or industry. If such an adjustment erased most of the 16%, or if women's share rose while the premium held, the scarcity reading would be wrong.

If scarcity is setting the price, companies are spending on the women who already hold the job or can win it. Boards are paying more per woman in the role while handing the role to fewer women ^[1][9]. The wider pool is thinner as well: Grant Thornton counts women in 31% of US senior leadership roles, down from 34% in 2025 and 35% in 2024 ^[16].

The premium is also narrow. Across the five highest-paid positions in Equilar's own study, men earned more than women overall ^[12]. In the Bureau of Labor Statistics' management and professional category, women's median weekly pay of $1,476 is about 77% of men's $1,928, below the 82% ratio for all full-time workers ^[21][11][10].